S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
       ________________________________________________________________________
                                         7868
                              2015-2016 Regular Sessions
                                 I N  A S S E M B L Y
                                     May 28, 2015
                                      ___________
       Introduced  by  M. of A. WEINSTEIN -- (at request of the Office of Court
         Administration) -- read once and referred to the Committee on  Judici-
         ary
       AN  ACT  to  amend  the civil practice law and rules, in relation to the
         privilege between a personal representative and the attorney to  life-
         time trustees
         THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
       BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
    1    Section 1. Paragraph 2 of subdivision (a) of section 4503 of the civil
    2  practice law and rules, as added by chapter 430 of the laws of 2002,  is
    3  amended to read as follows:
    4    2.  Personal  representatives. (A) For purposes of the attorney-client
    5  privilege, if the client is a personal representative and  the  attorney
    6  represents  the personal representative in that capacity, in the absence
    7  of an agreement between the attorney and the personal representative  to
    8  the contrary:
    9    (i)  No  beneficiary  of  the  estate  is, or shall be treated as, the
   10  client of the attorney solely by reason of his or her status as  benefi-
   11  ciary; and
   12    (ii)  The  existence  of a fiduciary relationship between the personal
   13  representative and a beneficiary  of  the  estate  does  not  by  itself
   14  constitute  or give rise to any waiver of the privilege for confidential
   15  communications made in the course of professional employment between the
   16  attorney or his or her employee and the personal representative  who  is
   17  the client.
   18    (B)  For  purposes  of this paragraph, "personal representative" shall
   19  mean (i) the administrator, administrator c.t.a., ancillary  administra-
   20  tor,  executor,  preliminary executor, temporary administrator, LIFETIME
   21  TRUSTEE or trustee to whom letters have been issued within  the  meaning
   22  of  subdivision  thirty-four  of section one hundred three of the surro-
   23  gate's court procedure act, and (ii) the guardian  of  an  incapacitated
        EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                             [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                  LBD08839-02-5
       A. 7868                             2
    1  communicant if and to the extent that the order appointing such guardian
    2  under  subdivision (c) of section 81.16 of the mental hygiene law or any
    3  subsequent order of any court expressly provides that the guardian is to
    4  be  the  personal  representative  of  the incapacitated communicant for
    5  purposes of this section; "beneficiary" shall have the meaning set forth
    6  in subdivision eight of section one hundred  three  of  the  surrogate's
    7  court  procedure  act  and  "estate" shall have the meaning set forth in
    8  subdivision nineteen of section one hundred  three  of  the  surrogate's
    9  court procedure act.
   10    S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.